The present invention relates to a laser ablation method with patch optimization.
Machines for machining workpieces by laser ablation are generally known. European patent application EP 2 301 706 A2 describes for instance a possible technical design for such an apparatus.
An imaginable configuration and design for such a machine for machining workpieces by laser ablation is shown in FIG. 1. The laser head 1 of the displayed machine operates with 5 mechanical axes and allows the positioning of the laser focal point and the direction of the emitted laser beam on the surface of a three-dimensional solid workpieces situated within the machine (not shown). Several machine configurations are imaginable: For instance a workpiece-holder or—as shown in FIG. 1—a laser head which is linear movable in three axis (Cartesian X, Y, Z system). Preferably, allowing a higher accuracy and flexibility, the workpiece-holder or the laser head are in addition able to rotate with high precision on two rotational axes.
FIG. 2 illustrates a possible laser head for machining workpieces by laser ablation. The shown machine's laser head 1 comprises in particular actors allowing its rotational movement, a laser source, optics and a so called galvanometer module. The schematic configuration and functional principle of such a galvanometer 13 is illustrated in FIG. 3. The laser source 3 emits a laser beam 2 (actually laser beam pulses), which is deflected by an X-axis mirror 4 and a Y-axis mirror 5 and passes through an F-theta lens 6 or a lens with dynamic field correction till it reaches the workpiece 7. This allows moving the beam 2 on a plane with a surface corresponding to the selected focal length. Focal lengths of up to 430 mm are state of the art. For further details on the construction of such a machine for the laser ablation reference is made to the above-mentioned European patent application EP 2 301 706 A2.
For laser ablation applications explained further down, known systems allow on flat workpieces 7 to achieve a maximal, so called engraving or marking field for the laser beam of 300×300 mm for a 430 lens (see FIG. 3). On curved workpiece surfaces however, the laser engraving field would be limited with an optical system as displayed in FIG. 3 to the focalization capabilities of the lenses. The focalization capabilities of an optical system as displayed in FIG. 3 usually allow a shift of the (image) plane in the z-axis in the range of 0.3 mm depending of the focal lens used. That number defines the so called “working depth” for the laser engraving. If a surface to be worked is curved and the working depth of the laser is not sufficient to reach the deeper parts of that workpiece surface, the deeper parts need to worked in another process step by the creation of a new patch to be processed (requiring consequently a repositioning of the machining head). It would of course be possible to engrave three-dimensional shapes with such a—two-dimensional—galvanometer by the use of that very limited focalization depth in the z-axis being around 0.3 mm. However such a machining would take much more time due to an increased amount of necessary patches to texture a three-dimensional shape on the three-dimensional workpiece surface 7.
To overcome such a limitation on the working depth, it is on the other hand possible and known to include in optical systems a “zoom” for the z-axis (focus shifter), allowing therewith the shifting of the laser engraving field and the working depth even up to +/−80 mm such an optical system is displayed in the following FIG. 3a: The optical system includes a so called laser z focus shifter 12. The laser z focus shifter 12 allows the engraving of fields with depths even up to +/−80 mm in the z-axis. The workpiece surface 7 that is to say engraving field can consequently be three-dimensional (e.g. curved as displayed in FIG. 3a). By the use of a Z focus shifter, the repositioning of the laser head to another position for machining another patch is not avoided; nonetheless the amount of necessary patches 11 to machine a workpiece surface 7 is therewith substantially reduced and consequently the amount of laser head 1 repositionings—one repositioning for each machined patch—is also substantially reduced.
For the engraving that is to say texturing of a workpiece surface it is common—since necessary—to subdivide the workpiece surface into at least two—in practice many—so called plots or patches.
Laser ablation methods used for the engraving of the surface of a workpiece operate by sublimating the (usually metallic) material on the surface of the workpiece. The laser ablation machining occurs in a multiplicity of process steps in which the surface structure is worked layerwise. The working of a workpiece surface in layers is due to the simple fact, that a laser beam is just able to ablate a surface down to a limited thickness. In fact, the laser is able to take away 1 to 5 μm of material in one passage. The texturing that is to say engraving by laser ablation of a typical metallic workpiece requests usually a working in 20 to 100 passages (that is to say layers) on the surface of the workpiece. The principle used to produce the desired structure, or texture, on the surface of the 3D mould is described for instance in the document DE 42 09 933 A1. The process can be seen as “inverted stereolithography”: instead of raising the coats for building, the material is sublimed coat by coat by the machining as described for instance as well in a further publication, the EP 1189724 A0 that is to say WO 0074891 A1. The layers are machined by the laser beam from the top of the 3D mould surface to the deepest part thereof.
FIG. 3b illustrates schematically the known and used way a laser beam ablates the surface that is to say the predefined patch 11 of a workpiece: The (not displayed) laser head emits laser pulses which are deflected at two or more mirrors of a galvanometer 8 and hit the workpiece surface in the patch 11 (as mentioned before, the workpiece surface is subdivided into a multitude of defined areas which are commonly called patches). Where the laser pulses hit the surface, material is evaporated. The laser beam 2 consisting of constantly emitted laser pulses is moved by the actors and mirrors of the galvanometer 8 in the commonly used vector-like manner on a predefined way, producing microscopic and parallel arranged corrugations on the workpiece surface delimited by the borders of the patch 11 (see parallel alignments in FIG. 3b). The corrugations are formed by sublimating material away from the surface. The depth in which the ablation of material occurs typically reaches a range of 1 to 5 μm. Although technically possible, the ablation of thicker layers is usually not indicated due to quality reasons. For deeper engraving it is preferred to ablate in more layers—20 to 100 layers to be processed in sequence—to reach the requested result. For processing the workpiece surface, the laser beam always moves along the predefined parallels vectors on the displayed patch 11 of FIG. 3b, jumping at the border of the patch 11 to the next position. To produce a texture that is to say a relief on the surface, the laser pulses are switched off whenever the sublimation of material is not requested. This is the known and commonly used method for the laser texturing that is to say engraving of a predefined patch on a workpiece (called vector-like working process). The method unfortunately produces visible borders at the margin of the patches, as can be seen on the picture of FIG. 3c: The borders of the triangular patches are clearly visible. The picture illustrates on the other hand also the traces of the commonly used ablation in vector-like manner well visible are the typical microscopic parallel arranged corrugations on the workpiece surface delimited by the borders of the patch 11 (see parallel alignments in FIG. 3c).
The visible borders illustrated for instance in FIG. 3c are obviously not desired. Different methods to reduce the visibility of generated patch borders are known and will be explained in the following.
To reduce the traces, the ablation process can for instance be conducted layerwise, working every defined patch of one layer before moving to the processing of the next layer. The patch borders of subsequent layers are then changed, avoiding therewith that they lie upon another and generate a multiplication of visible traces. The changing patch borders are illustrated in FIG. 4. The left and the right picture of FIG. 4 represent two subsequent layers 17.1 and 17.2. As illustrated, the defined patch-borders of the patches 11 on the subsequent layer 17.2 (picture on the right side) have a different form compared to the patches 11 on the preceding layer 17.1.
The machine control system dedicated for such a laser ablation process accurately positions the laser head—with its for instance 5 degrees of freedom movement abilities—whenever necessary conveniently near to the workpiece surface so that the patch can be optimally processed.
The computer files modeling the 3D surface of a solid workpiece to be worked are mesh files (see FIG. 5). The machine control system gets the 3d-coordinates of the workpiece surface in digital form and uses that information for the local partial engraving by the laser head.
The textures to be ablated are additionally applied that is to say processed by software to the mesh file of the modeled 3D-surface of the workpiece. The application of the surface texture by software and laser ablation has many advantages compared to the physical plating used in the past. The texturing, particularly. engraving, of a modeled 3D-surface by software is well known and particularly allows correcting visible distortions of the structure, which would inevitably occur with a traditional physical plating process on strongly contorted surface parts of a workpiece. The software is able to suitably distort or stretch the texture to be applied on those critical surface parts and allows herewith obtaining good results (FIG. 6b).
A known method for the 3D laser engraving of an image that is to say texture on the surface of a three dimensional workpiece by partially ablating a multiplicity of layers is described for instance in the already mentioned document WO 0074891 A1 (EP 1 189 724 A0).
The realization of a three dimensional texture on a surface of a workpiece requires as mentioned in most cases to work with many layers and to split the surface of every layer into several patches depending on the curvature of the workpiece, according the requested machining accuracy and in view of further machining field characteristics offered by the laser head and its optics (focal length, eventually by use of a focus shifter in z-axis). Usually the patches do not exceed the size of 175×175 mm.
An example of such a workpiece surface breakdown in several patches is displayed with FIGS. 7a and 7b (FIG. 5 represents herein the corresponding mesh file of the 3D surface of the workpiece). FIGS. 7a and 7b display actually one layer of the workpiece surface, which consists of many planar patches 10. The planar patches 10 of FIGS. 7a and 7b are virtually generated by the software, containing each the planar projection of the three dimensional texture to be applied on the real three dimensional workpiece surface. The projections on the planar patches 10 of the texture to be applied on the workpiece have to take account of the occurring optical distortion. The workpiece surface of a corresponding planar patch 10 is often not necessarily plane. Defining the planar patch 10, the software needs to consider this optically essential detail. More details about subdivision of the three dimensional texture into patches can be found in the document WO 2005/030430 A1.
The working depth permitted by the lenses (up to +/−80 mm) corresponds actually to the maximal distance allowed between a real point to be machined on the workpiece surface and its projection on the planar patch 10 (see FIG. 7b). If that distance exceeds the allowed working depth of the laser apparatus, a new planar patch 10 needs to be defined by the software and the processing of that new patch will actually also require a new alignment of the laser head 1.
For every—three dimensional—layer to be machined, the software will calculate and define new suitable planar patches according the given technical requirements. The software always considers of course the actual and real three dimensional shape of the workpiece surface (memorized as a mesh file in the memory of the processor) and the texture to be applied thereto.
The laser beam processes according to the state of the art layer by layer and within each layer patch surface by patch surface by repositioning the laser head. Ablating the workpiece in this way, results in ending with a machined workpiece containing the desired texture on its surface.
The texture to be applied that is to say engraved on a workpiece surface is typically defined as grey level image. FIG. 8 illustrates such a grey level image 16. The grey level image 16 representing a three-dimensional texture is composed by a multiplicity of individual dots, whereby the depth of a point is defined as a corresponding grey level of the corresponding dot. The lighter a dot, the less deep is the texture at that specific point. The darker the dot, the deeper is the texture at that specific position. Preferably the amount of grey levels corresponds to the amount of applied layers and every layer is represented by a specific grey level. By that, a grey level image defines for each layer if a specific point needs to be ablated or not during the machining of that layer: is a dot on the grey level image 16 equal or darker than the grey level of the specific processed layer, then the corresponding point needs to be ablated. Is a dot in the grey level image lighter than the grey level of that specific layer, then the corresponding point must not to be ablated (neither during the machining of that layer nor of any subsequent layer). A white dot or area represents consequently a point or area of the texture surface with no deepness (not shown in FIG. 8). This means, the texture corresponds at that position to the (unmachined) surface and no laser ablation has to occur there.
As mentioned before, the conventional way to ablate a workpiece by segmenting the surface into several portions leaves often traces at the borders of each patch. The corrugations generated by the laser beam movement in vector-like manner (see FIG. 3c) leave at their end at the boundaries of each patch per se a trace. The machining of adjoin patches—having the exact same patch boundary—worsen the situation by creating an additional overlapping effect. Either the pulses produce a doubled removal of material or—in case the boundaries of two adjoining patches do not perfectly coincide but are slightly spaced from each other—a reduced material removal occurs at the boundary. In any case, the result is an undesired, visible border line on the boundaries of each defined patch (see FIG. 3c).
A way to machine all patches of a workpiece reducing the formation of visible boundary lines is described in the document EP1 174 208. In that document, the formation of boundary lines is diminished by foreseeing certain overlapping areas between two adjoined patches. In the overlapping areas the removal of material is conducted by the machining of both overlapping patches. The chosen approach should result in the diffusion of the traces of the boundary lines generated by the laser beam moved in the vector-like manner.
Nonetheless, even the method disclosed in the EP1 174 208 does not always produce satisfying results. At the corner areas for instance, where four patches overlap (see for example FIG. 2 of EP1 174 208), the obtainable results are not always satisfying. Further, during the machining by patches, each patch may have a different optical rendering. This can be problematic since these reflections are visible on the machined material, but also in the case the workpiece represents a mould, on the molded workpiece. Another limitation is that the vectors of adjacent patches must be continuous (meaning each vector has to be straight and continue throughout the adjacent patches, that is to say being aligned with the other vectors) when this method is applied.
The process disclosed in the EP1 174 208—as every other known process up to date—works with the described vector-like ablation method as described for FIG. 3b. That's the usual and known way to texture that is to say. engraving a workpiece-surface by laser ablation.
The document EP 2 647 464 A1 discloses also a method to mitigate the formation of boundary lines between patches achieved by ablating the surface pointwise with randomly set machining dots instead of having parallel arranged corrugations produced with the ablation in vector-like manner.
For all known methods, the laser head needs to be repositioned for every patch to be machined.